2025 Reading Challenge discussion

2023 in Review

Well, y’all, we have reached the end of another year-long reading trek. We would love to have you join us in reflecting back on your 2023 bookish travels and sharing part of your story.

How many books did you read?

Did you reach your goal?

Which book was your favorite?

Which book was your least favorite?

Which book had your favorite cover?

How many yearly challenges did you participate in?

How many monthly challenges did you participate in?

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?

What other group activities did you participate in?

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation)

Hola!
I hope everyone has enjoyed their books in this 2023 that is saying goodbye as much as I have enjoyed mine and may 2024 be filled with even better readings if possibe.

How many books did you read?
645 until today
Did you reach your goal?
I far surpassed it, my plan was to read around 250 books, but since I started using audible I became unstoppable...
Which book was your favorite?
It's hard to choose one among so many, I gave 5 stars to 97 books and I reread some old favorites too, so I don't know which one is the most loved, maybe Don Quijote de la Mancha among the rereads and The Running Grave among the new releases.
Which book was your least favorite?
Unfortunally I gave 1 star to 27 books, some of them I totally forgot but I was quite disappointed with The Tattooist of Auschwitz maybe due to the high expectations I had (unpopular opinion, I know, but...honestly, I didn't like it)
Which book had your favorite cover?
I don't think I have read many books with pretty covers this year, maybe this one?

How many yearly challenges did you participate in?
I participated in 12, I finished 10 and I highly doubt I will be able to complete the remaining 2 before the end of the year.
How many monthly challenges did you participate in?
I participated in the two monthly challenges each month except for May and December when I only participated in one each month, which makes a total of 22 challenges
How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?
In all, 8 in total
What other group activities did you participate in?
Group reads, Buddy reads, and Readathons
Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.
Yes, I discovered a lot of new authors this year.
I especially enjoyed Alejandro Palomas
What was the biggest surprise for you?
Well I was pleasantly surprised in many ways this year (challenges, books, authors,...) but what really amazes me is the wonderful people who make this group one of my favorite corners in the internet, it's a pleasure to be a member of this great family of readers around the world.

HAPPY 2024! 🎉📚

How many books did you read? 121. I hope to squeeze in one more by 31 December

Did you reach your goal? Yes. My plan was to read at least 101

Which book was your favorite? I can't just choose one favourite book as I gave 19 books five stars this year. Particular highlights were the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown, the Half Bad series by Sally Green and Nimona by N.D Stevenson.

Which book was your least favorite? Slaughterhouse-Five. I don't think I was the right audience

Which book had your favorite cover? Maybe this one? . The story was as good as the cover

How many yearly challenges did you participate in? 6

How many monthly challenges did you participate in? 11. I did one every month except November

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in? 3. I hoped to do one every quarter but didn't do one in q1

What other group activities did you participate in? I did all the readathons and think I did a couple of group/buddy reads

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed. I have read books by 30 new to me authors. I really enjoyed Joy Demorra who writes the Hunger Pangs series

What was the biggest surprise for you? I read The Quarantine Princess Diaries which was a surprise for me as I didn't realise the author had written more in this series

Hello! May 2024 bring all the book hauls that you can want! 🤓

How many books did you read? 41

Did you reach your goal?
Yes, I set myself a goal of 25 since 2022 I barely passed my reading goal for the year. I am happy that I was able to read more this year.

Which book was your favorite? I had several 5-star reads this year but the Keeper of Enchanted Rooms was my favorite because I finished the book in less than a week.



Which book was your least favorite?
I still plan to finish the series eventually, but it wasn't my favorite book to read this past year. I gave it 3 stars. I couldn't find myself wanting to keep reading every chance I had.



Which book had your favorite cover?
I can't choose between the two.



How many yearly challenges did you participate in? 3 (1 completed)

How many monthly challenges did you participate in? 0

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in? 0

What other group activities did you participate in?
1 team readathon... Team Blue!

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.
5 new authors and Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto was my favorite

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation)
I let my workload get in the way of my reading since it helps me destress. At the beginning of December, I realized that the last time that I picked up a book was the end of July. I was surprised about that and started reading again.

How many books did you read? 147 as of now, but only 145 posted to GR so far

Did you reach your goal? That's an interesting question! Last year at this time I was determined to read no more than 100 books, but then upped that number so did I surpass it or did I break my goal of limiting my reading? :)


ETA I was only counting ones here :)

How many yearly challenges did you participate in?

How many monthly challenges did you participate in?

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?

I'm not sure now and am running late, but more than one for monthly and yearly for sure; can't remember about quarterly now. From August until early Dec it was harder because we visited my family in August across the continent and my mother was degrading quickly (she passed away in early December) so I started my more serious grieving for her in August, plus we have had a very stressful situation with another family member. I stopped signing up when I knew I really couldn't be sure I'd finish, etc.

What other group activities did you participate in? Although I never sign up for them, I participated in a number of the Buddy Reads over the course of the year.

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed. I read a number of new-to-me authors this year. One I particularly enjoyed (5 stars) was Jesse Q Sutanto's Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

How many books did you read?
103

Did you reach your goal?
Yes, beat it by 3

Which book was your favorite?
Oh, I can't pick just one. 30% of my reading was 5 stars, so I'll just select a few: One Hundred Twenty-One Days; All Your Children, Scattered; The Last Brother; 'Trifles' and 'a Jury of Her Peers'.

Which book was your least favorite?
I have three: Dewey Decimated - storyline could have been great, the misogyny did my head in; Ghostwriter Anonymous; This is How You Lose the Time War -I'm definitely not the right audience.

Which book had your favorite cover?
All Your Children, Scattered:

How many yearly challenges did you participate in?
9, over the 6 groups I'm in. 2 of the 9 are greater-than-1-year challenges.

How many monthly challenges did you participate in?
None. I schedule out my year (with many changes) and these always tie me up in knots.

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?
4 over various groups

What other group activities did you participate in?
Led a few monthly reads in 2 of the groups.

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.
I read 65 new-to-me authors: 14 male, 51 female. 23 of the 65 were 5-star, so really tough to pick just one. I did follow up with one author during the year: Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, a Rwandan author, who as a young adult, emigrated to France.

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation)
That so many of my "favorites" were translated works.

How many books did you read?
Ninety-two

Did you reach your goal?
Yes; I originally really wanted one hundred, but I started out at a goal of twenty-five. I worked up from there and am super pleased to say I got this far, especially while taking year-round classes!

Which book was your favorite?
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Which book was your least favorite?
Towelhead by Alicia Erian

Which book had your favorite cover?


Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.
Bonnie Garmus, Penny Heart, Natalie Blunt, Casey McQuinston, Alice Oseman, Tricia Levenseller

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation)
The interaction between me and some of my newer Goodreads friends. There's truly been bonds formed between interactions and recommendations and I don't believe my year would've been the same on this site without them.

My goal was 50 books and I read 66.

Sunny wrote: "2023 in Review..."

How many books did you read? 76

Did you reach your goal? Yes, my goal was 52

Which book was your favorite?


Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Which book was your least favorite?


Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
I only made it about 6 pages before throwing giving up.

Which book had your favorite cover?

I didn't really have a favorite cover.

How many yearly challenges did you participate in?

Only the Goodreads Reading Challenge

How many monthly challenges did you participate in?
How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?

None - I don't really do challenges. I have found that I enjoy reading a lot more by focusing on the quality of my reads, and not the quantity.

What other group activities did you participate in?

I participated in some group reads for this group and other groups.

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.

Here's a whole bunch of good ones that I read for the first time in 2023:

Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky
Willa Cather
Mikhail Bulgakov
E.T.A. Hoffmann
Alexandre Dumas
Joseph Heller
Becky Chambers
James Crumley
Stephen Baxter
Italo Calvino
James Hadley Chase
Ivan Turgenev
Sylvia Plath
David Brin
James M. McPherson
Sébastien Japrisot
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Vladimir Nabokov
Timothy Zahn
Michael Shaara
Henry James
Kevin Ansbro
John Williams
James Tiptree Jr.
Daniel James Brown
Joe R. Lansdale
Eudora Welty
John Brunner

What was the biggest surprise for you?


Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.
This is an award-winning collection of short stories written by Alice Sheldon. She wrote Science-Fiction that focused on women's issues under the pen name James Tiptree Jr. I was amazed by how interesting and fresh her perspectives were, even 50-or-so years later. Highly recommended.

And, if anyone is interested, below is a link to my review of 2023 on Goodreads which is not a real book of course, but an annual posting where Goodreads members share their thoughts on their reading experience for the year:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

How many books did you read?
22

Did you reach your goal?
Yes

Which book was your favorite?
It's hard to choose but it's probably Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I've seen the film before reading the book and I love(d) both of them.

Which book was your least favorite?
Jaded by Lucy Hawking. But I don't think that it's a bad book. I rated it 3 stars. And Lucy is also one of my favourite authors.

Which book had your favorite cover?
Falakba zárt idő by Róza Kata. A book written by a fellow student of mine from university.

How many yearly challenges did you participate in?
How many monthly challenges did you participate in?
How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?
0

What other group activities did you participate in?
Just posting to my Reading Challenge discussion. (If it counts.)

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.
Delia Owens

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation)
None.

How many books did you read?
82

Did you reach your goal?
No.

Which book was your favorite?
Michikusa 道草 Lingering On The Way

Which book was your least favorite?
Anita Mamã

Which book had your favorite cover?
home

How many yearly challenges did you participate in?
9.

How many monthly challenges did you participate in?
None.

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?
None.

What other group activities did you participate in?
I just updated my reading challenges.

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.
Yes, Ma Wei.

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation)

Probably Haikyu!! Club, simply because I didn't know it existed. It's an official spin-off of Haikyuu that wasn't made by the original mangaka, Haruichi Furudate, instead it was made by Kyouhei Miyajima, it's not as fun as the original, but it was still an enjoyable read.

(I am really enjoying reading through everyone's posts (and checking out the books/ authors you liked!)

How many books did you read?
I read 194 books.

Did you reach your goal?
Yes, definitely. Originally set out to read 25 books, which I surpassed by March. Then changed my goal to 75 - but definitely also reached that one.

Which book was your favorite?
I challenged myself to read many different genres / authors / books from different time periods this year so it is really hard to pick an absolute favorite ... I have a list of my favorite books of 2023 though (there are 13) 📚

Which book was your least favorite?
Wicked (I honestly do not know how I made it to the end of this book - and then wrote a very long annoyed and angry review about it haha)

Which book had your favorite cover?
I find it very hard to chose, possibly:

How many yearly challenges did you participate in?
6, 8 if I count the other group I am a part of (but way less active in)

How many monthly challenges did you participate in?
14, started in April (with a short break while travelling), after that I joined most of the monthy challenges

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?
6 (or 7, if I count the other group), I didnt participate in quarter 1

What other group activities did you participate in?
The Team Readathons - which were a lot of fun (I hadn't really been part of the group long when the individual one happened and was very busy at the time), multiple buddy reads and some group reads

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.
I didnt count how many, but there were lots, as I wasn't reading many book series this year, but instead trying out a lot of new things. My favorites are also in the favorites list above (aside for Jane Austen all of those authors were new to me).

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation)
Before this year, I had only used goodreads to occasionally check ratings/reviews of a book. I really enjoyed becoming an active part of this group and meeting lots of nice people to discuss books with - or just talk to about life in general. Its been great and I am looking forward to continuing in 2024!

Happy New Year to all of you! :)

And thanks to everyone that is making this group such a fun place to be!

How many books did you read? 81 books (Goodreads says 72, because there are some that I have not logged for one reason or another.)

Did you reach your goal? Yes, my goal was 70, so I smashed it!

Which book was your favorite? My top book of the year was Wanderers by Chuck Wendig, which actually was my Secret Santa’s gift in this group a few years ago!

Which book was your least favorite? I DNF-ed a few books, but from the ones I actually finished, my least favorite was a Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic, which was disappointingly not like the show at all.

Which book had your favorite cover? The Ten Percent Thief, those colours are so pretty!


How many yearly challenges did you participate in?
How many monthly challenges did you participate in?
How many quarterly challenges did you participate in? I did not participate in any of the challenges this year.

What other group activities did you participate in? A group read, a buddy read, a TBR twin, and Secret Santa.

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed. A lot of new authors I liked a lot! For example Stephen Graham Jones, Catriona Ward and the above mentioned Chuck Wendig.

What was the biggest surprise for you? That although I love planning my tbr and making lists, I can sometimes actually prefer moodreading instead and enjoy that a lot. I will try to leave more room for that in 2024.

Have a great new reading year everyone!

How many books did you read?
48
Did you reach your goal?
No. My goal was 50. I squeezed in one last book to reach 47. I probably won't do that again. I think rushing may have taken away some enjoyment from the last book.
Which book was your favorite?
Anxious People
Which book was your least favorite?
Miss Plum and Miss Penny
Which book had your favorite cover?
I couldn't pass up this cover, with a cute little pig, while browsing the local library.

How many yearly challenges did you participate in?
5
How many monthly challenges did you participate in?
13
How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?
4
What other group activities did you participate in?
1 or 2 buddy reads. Readathons, Made some challenge suggestions, and lead a few.
Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.
Yes. J.P. Delaney (Tony Strong)
What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation) I'm surprised I didn't get to certain books on my tbr list. Books I've been looking forward to. (I'm still looking forward to them.) 😊

How many books did you read?
66 books

Did you reach your goal?
Yes - goal was 50!

Which book was your favorite?
Really tough choice between:
Blood Sugar by Sascha Rothchild 5/21/23
Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth 8/17/23

Which book was your least favorite?
Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca 8/31/23

Which book had your favorite cover?
Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth 8/17/23

How many yearly challenges did you participate in?
4 yearly

How many monthly challenges did you participate in?
13 monthly

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?
8 quarterly/seasonal

What other group activities did you participate in?
Committing to more challenges than I could possibly complete

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.
34 new authors according to my NRBC challenge. Ainslie Hogarth and Sascha Rothchild really delivered for me.

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation)
How much I hated Eric LaRocca - really wanted to dig a new horror writer

How many books did you read?
I managed to read 5 books and thankfully they were all good reads :)

Did you reach your goal?
No, only managed 5 books out of 32 books however I found out I was pregnant late Dec 2022 and after these 5 books I lost my desire to read as my brain became all the about the pregnancy and baby. Hopefully 2024 will be better.

Which book was your favorite?
I'm not actually sure, as out of the 5 books I read I gave 4 of them 5 stars which I'm thrilled about. I would say though, if i had to really pick 1 I would choose Hekla's Children by James Brogden because I still think of the twists in that story first before I think of the other books. Having said that though, Soon by Lois Murphy had the best plot and storyline and I loved the main character.

Which book was your least favorite?
Sundial by Catriona Ward - I gave it a 4 star

Which book had your favorite cover?
Wranglestone by Darren Charlton is my cover. I just love the purple and pinks and the wildnerness scenery.


How many yearly challenges did you participate in?
How many monthly challenges did you participate in?
How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?
What other group activities did you participate in?
Sadly I didn't join any challenges or activities this year.

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.
Yes all 5 books were new to me. I thoroughly enjoyed James Brogden as I read two of his books back to back

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation)
I was surprised I had only managed 5!

How many books did you read?
20 in total

Did you reach your goal?
I surpased it. Original was 15, adjusted it to 17 and still read more!
Mind you I had a broken wrist so during that time it was my only real hobby :-)

Which book was your favorite?
Dreamhunter and Dreamquake: Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet
It isa duology that can be read in one go really

Which book was your least favorite?
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Flimsy in set up and annoying not gripping

Which book had your favorite cover?

For no other reason that to me the picture was Joscelin as I had imagined him and it took me back to the LOTR movies

How many yearly challenges did you participate in?
2

How many monthly challenges did you participate in?
none

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?
none

What other group activities did you participate in?
none

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.
10 new authors. I loved Ambelin Kwaymullina and Becky Manawatu

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation)
How book critics and I can wildly disagree on what a good book is

How many books did you read? 230 in total!

Did you reach your goal? Yes! I wanted to double my goal from 2022 (100 books).

Which book was your favorite? This is such a hard question for me. But I would say my top five of the year were:
- Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo - a wild romp of a time, a fantastic sequel despite the high anticipation.
- Babel by R.F. Kuang - I mostly liked Kuang's Poppy War series but wasn't really sold on her as an author until this book. Love the intricacy of the world she created and the way she played with racial tension in the book.
- Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann - I read this one just as the movie came out and ate it up in two days. Great pacing and writing, horrific and intense source material, and I appreciated how thorough and careful Grann was with his Native American sources.
- Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - I read Gideon the Ninth in 2022 and loved it and finally came back to read the next two in the series. Harrow stood out because I deeply love weird books and this one is so! weird! Muir did something very unique and cool in this book and I loved it so much.
- Night Watch by Terry Pratchett - if you haven't read Discworld, you should (but don't start with this book - it only packs a punch if you've followed the characters!). I have a hard time choosing between this or Thud! / Snuff but god, they were all so, so good.

Honorable mentions: A Psalm for the Wild-Built &A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, The Count of Monte Cristo, Painted Devils, Thistlefoot, Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America, Lessons in Chemistry, Small Gods, All the King's Men

Which book was your least favorite? I gotta say, I tried several books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia this year and just really didn't like any of them. Mexican Gothic was probably my favorite but I struggled to finish Gods of Jade and Shadow, The Beautiful Ones, and Certain Dark Things. I really wanted to like them because the concepts are so great, but I found a lot of her dialogue to be clunky and the writing to be only so-so.

Which book had your favorite cover? All The Locked Tomb covers are great.



How many yearly challenges did you participate in? 14

How many monthly challenges did you participate in? I did every month and both challenges, so 24!

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in? 8

What other group activities did you participate in? I joined all the read-a-thons for the first time this year which was a lot of fun!

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed. One of my goals this year was to read as many new books as I could, so I had a ton of authors this year I had never read before. A few I really enjoyed:

- Becky Chambers has been recommended to me so many times but I only finally picked up her books this year. Love them all! She has such a warm way of writing and her characters are all interesting.
- He's not a new author to most people but I had never read anything by Jules Verne before and I found his books super delightful. Excellent adventure and much funnier than expected.
- I know Ali Hazelwood inspires some mixed feelings (at least, when I've seen her discussed) but the books of hers I've picked up so far I've found charming and fun.
- Shelley Parker-Chan, Kiley Reid, and Viet Than Nguyen all had books I loved this year.
- I loved all of Carmen Maria Machado's short stories I read this year. So weird and horrific and cool.

What was the biggest surprise for you? How many audiobooks I listened to! I have never been an audiobook person before - I really started doing them more in 2022 and this year I had so many! I listened to some long-term TBRs via audiobook this year, including The Count of Monte Cristo and Anna Karenina and I was constantly surprised by how much more I enjoyed these heavy-hitter classics when read to me vs reading the physical book. I plan to try the same thing this year to get through some other long TBRs I've struggled to complete.

How many books did you read?
I read 130 books this past year.

Did you reach your goal?
I surpassed my goal by 5 books. I was worried that I wouldn't make it.

Which book was your favorite?
I had two that I would call favorites for different reasons. Craving Them by SJ Meares. This was my daughter's first published book. I'm really proud of all her hard work and I really liked the book. Lucca by Sarah Brianne is a book that I wished I could read again for the first time. I really loved it. Its actually been hard to continue the series because this one can't be topped.

Which book was your least favorite?
The Maid by Nita Prose for so many reasons.

Which book had your favorite cover?
Resisting Him: Scarlett City Series Book 3

How many yearly challenges did you participate in?
I started with four, but finished two.

How many monthly challenges did you participate in?
None

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?
None

What other group activities did you participate in?
None

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.

Celeste Ng

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation)
I read several steampunk novels this past year. I've not read much of that genre in the past. I also read a lot of really weird stuff, some I liked others not so much. Overall it was a good reading year and now I'm on to the next.
reply | flag

How many books did you read? 80

Did you reach your goal? Yes

Which book was your favorite? Legends & Lattes

Which book was your least favorite? Dirty Laundry

Which book had your favorite cover? The House in the Cerulean Sea

How many yearly challenges did you participate in? 1 in 2023, 2 in 2024

How many monthly challenges did you participate in? 0

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in? 0

What other group activities did you participate in? None

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed. So many. R F Kuang is a new favorite.

What was the biggest surprise for you? That I could read so many books in a year!"

How many books did you read? 130

Did you reach your goal? Yes. Goal was 90.

Which book was your favorite? Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Which book was your least favorite? The Art of Reading

Which book had your favorite cover?

How many yearly challenges did you participate in? 4

How many monthly challenges did you participate in? 0

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in? 0

What other group activities did you participate in? 4

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed. Emily Henry

What was the biggest surprise for you? I know that I am probably in the minority on this opinion but I was surprised at how many people loved . (Open to interpretation)

How many books did you read?
156

Did you reach your goal?
Yep! My goal was 150

Which book was your favorite?
The Name of the Wind
and the Saga graphic novel series

Which book was your least favorite?
I had 4 1-star reads. Probably Gone Bamboo if I had to pick the worst.

Which book had your favorite cover?
The Temeraire series. I have the paperback version with the watercolor drawings on each cover and the spines make one picture. LOVE them

How many yearly challenges did you participate in?
8

How many monthly challenges did you participate in?
2

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?
2

What other group activities did you participate in?
I did June's Reading Rainbow Readathon
Buddy Reads
A couple of Group Reads

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.
Patrick Rothfuss

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation)
I was surprised and pleased that the To Boldly Go yearly challenge group managed to read books set in all 249 countries! And that I crossed a couple of tiny island nations off of my personal list with that challenge!

How many books did you read? 67

Did you reach your goal? No :( My goal was 70

Which book was your favorite? Where Ivy Dares to Grow by Marielle Thompson

Which book was your least favorite? Battle Creek by Scott Lasser

Which book had your favorite cover?

How many yearly challenges did you participate in? 5

How many monthly challenges did you participate in? 2

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in? 0

What other group activities did you participate in? None

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed. Colleen Hoover

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation)

How many books did you read? Only 29 this time.

Did you reach your goal? No, was shooting for 50.

Which book was your favorite? Desert Star the last book in the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly.

Which book was your least favorite? The X-Ship by Vaughn Heppner one of the worst books I have ever read.

Which book had your favorite cover? Uncompromising Honor by David Weber

How many yearly challenges did you participate in? 8

How many monthly challenges did you participate in? 2

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in? 1

What other group activities did you participate in? Posting in Let's Chat is about it.

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed. Yes, 4 new-to-me authors. Favorite was probably James S.A. Corey. The other three were R.J. Patterson, Willi Heinrich, and Vaughn Heppner.

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation) I'd say the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey.

How many books did you read?
78 books, of them 56 were audiobooks and 22 were print books. 31 were fiction and 47 were non-fiction.

Did you reach your goal?
I started the year with the goal of 30 and updated it several times until I made it 75 on October 1st, so yes, I met it and far exceeded my original goa.

Which book was your favorite?
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us - I absolutely loved it.

Which book was your least favorite?
It's a tie between The Quiet Tenant and The Dinner. Absolutely despised both.

Which book had your favorite cover?
Honestly don't know, I don't usually pick by covers. And so many were audiobooks. Of the non-audiobooks, probably
and the audiobook icon would be

How many yearly challenges did you participate in?
4, and completed them all

How many monthly challenges did you participate in?
0 - I usually read off my (very, very long) TBR list

How many quarterly challenges did you participate in?
2, both in Q4 and completed both

What other group activities did you participate in?
None, really

Did you read any new-to-you authors this year? Name one you enjoyed.
Most of the authors were new to me. I really enjoyed Ed Yong and I found several authors whose work I didn't rave about but will definitely read more of, like John Grisham and Sue Grafton.

What was the biggest surprise for you? (Open to interpretation)
This was the year I finally learned to drop books that are extremely boring. I have felt a lot of guilt in the past and I would usually persevere, but finally I decided that life's short, I have hundreds of books on my TBR and it's not worth it to waste my precious reading time on something that makes me want to throw it against the wall and tell the author to find a day job.